


Cigarettes and Iced Espresso

by weakzen



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Innuendo, Love, Team as Family, Teasing, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25439353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakzen/pseuds/weakzen
Summary: Felix tries the Detective's coffee. Mason starts a research project. And Nate just sighs eternally.
Relationships: Detective/Mason (The Wayhaven Chronicles), Female Detective/Mason (The Wayhaven Chronicles)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 48





	Cigarettes and Iced Espresso

The late sunlight warms the paper beneath my hand and casts a shine on the wet ink of my half-finished words.

As the tip of my pen hangs above them, the carriage clock ticks away steadily in the background, almost as if hurrying me to just get on with it. Get it done already. Commit to it once more and don't look back. Sighing softly, I lean away from the coffee table and idly tap the end of my pen against my lips while I mull over the best way to do exactly that.

More specifically, the best way to phrase the lie I'm about to write into my report in order to cover the Agency's ass.

Again.

I suppose, at least, I don't have to worry about telling it well enough to slip it past Tina. She already knows about the latest incident. And she's helping again too, with a subtlety that no longer surprises me, even if the Agency doesn't appreciate or know about it.

…I hope.

My pen stills as my lips press together. Unease coils in my stomach, same as it always does whenever I think too much on Tina's precarious position.

The one I let her walk into, ultimately.

No matter what she says.

My shoulders begin to stiffen too—but then Mason brushes his knuckles across them, and starts skimming his fingers along the skin bared by my sleeveless top.

I exhale a small breath and lean into his touch, sagging slightly against his leg and the sofa behind me. My head tilts back and he draws his fingers up my neck in response, combing them gently into the hair above my nape.

For a moment, I let my eyes fall shut and relax into the lazy strokes he delivers from his sprawled out position behind me.

We'd settled like this at least an hour ago, me hunched over the coffee table, slowly sinking into the rug while trying to catch up on paperwork; Mason stretched out on the sofa with one foot on the floor, dozing slightly with his leg pressed against my side; and Nate curled in a nearby armchair, an old leather-bound book nestled on his long legs, one he hasn't glanced up from since he first coaxed open its creaky spine.

As though on cue, he carefully turns one of its thick pages, a content little smile resting warmly on his face.

A faint smile of my own pulls at the corner of my lips, and Mason draws it into the open entirely when he deliberately grazes a ticklish spot on my neck.

With a very soft chuckle, I nuzzle my face against his hand and he eagerly catches my jaw in return, curling his fingers along the edge of it as he strokes my cheek with his thumb. Fondness swells across my chest as he does, filling my heart to the point where it aches slightly.

I've… really come to enjoy these lazy afternoons together.

And I'm so glad to be here now.

With him.

With all of them.

Sighing again, more contentedly this time, I press a parting kiss to Mason's knuckles and lean forward once more. His fingers trail down my spine with the movement, until they come to a rest on my waistband and hook into my belt loop. He toys with it idly while I turn my attention back to my report, reading over my words again as I fidget with my pen.

I'm halfway through them when the ice shifts in my cup, and I absently reach over to take a sip of my drink. And I'm halfway through that, frigid and rich bitterness washing over my tongue, when inspiration slams into me. I quickly return my drink to the coaster, careful not to let any condensation drip onto my work or the table.

Then I start writing my lie.

For a long while, there's nothing but the scratch of my pen against the paper and the ticking of the clock, with the occasional sound of Nate turning a page.

Mason gradually ambles away from my pants to stroke at the exposed skin on my lower back.

And eventually, some time later, he speaks to break the silence.

“They're back.”

Nate perks up right away, inhaling slightly as his attention pulls away from the book.

“I'm glad. I hope it went well.”

Mason grunts in agreement and I nod softly.

Nate reaches for the bookmark he placed on the coffee table earlier. The ornate wooden one I've never seen him use before today, lacquered black and decorated with a scrolling and beautifully delicate mother-of-pearl inlay of chrysanthemums, all topped by a shiny silk tassel. The one he seemed almost embarrassed by when he caught me staring at it wide-eyed, and reminded me he did, in fact, have _much_ nicer ones, but they were all being used in other books at the moment.

Of course, Nate.

Just _oh, this old thing_ me with your gorgeous fucking bookmark that's older than I am and probably worth at least a few months rent.

Grinning quietly, I roll my eyes and shake my head a bit as he tucks it back into the book.

Then he sets his book on the coffee table and stretches, long arms soaring into the air as his shoulders crack.

“It sounds like it went well,” he comments, breaking into a smile.

I have only a moment myself to catch the storm of excited footsteps in the hallway before Felix explodes through the doorway.

“Good afternoon, everybody!”

He barely stops to deliver his greeting before he launches himself into the nearest free armchair, which grunts loudly beneath the force of his landing. “I'm back and you can stop missing me now,” he adds, folding his arms behind his head as he winks.

I wink back. “You're actually implying that's possible? I'm shocked.”

A loud laugh bursts from him in response and Mason flinches slightly.

“Good point,” Felix replies, grinning at me. “Continue pining away then.”

“I'll be sure to do that,” Nate says, smiling warmly. “How did it go?”

“Just fine. Easy. Incredibly boring, though,” Felix says, sighing. “Nothing happened, so I'm sure Adam is super excited to tell you all about it.” He jerks his thumb toward the doorway. “He's on the phone with Agent Black right now, but—ugh, enough about all of that,” he says quickly, waving his hands around as his grin widens. “What's going on with all of you? What have you been up to?”

Mason huffs out a breath. “Enjoying the quiet while it lasted.”

Felix leans forward in the chair to smirk at Mason. Then he cups his hands around his mouth.

“ _Sounds boring_ ,” he blasts in reply like a foghorn.

Nate and I both wince beneath the volume—and Mason sits upright and growls at him so deeply the whole sofa vibrates.

“Maybe even more boring than reading,” he continues on without skipping a beat, glancing at Nate's book. His gaze slides over to my stack of papers next, and his lip immediately curls. “But not as boring as _that_.”

Then his eyes fall on my drink.

“Hey, what is this?” Felix snatches my cup from the table without waiting for an answer, then immediately swirls it around with a shake of his hand, rattling the ice together as the liquid sloshes dangerously close to the rim.

Nate stiffens, sucking in a breath as he reaches out a hand toward Felix. “Be careful with that.”

“Careful's my middle name,” Felix replies coolly, waggling his eyebrows at Nate. He gives my drink a deep sniff before his eyes flash to mine. “Smells weird. Can I try?”

I glance at the cup clutched in his grasp, Haley's logo emblazoned on the side, water droplets beading across it from the half-finished, half-melted iced espresso still spinning inside.

With the extra shots I'd asked for, oily foam spiraling on the surface.

And no cream or sugar to cut the sharpness of it at all.

Mason snickers quietly and settles back against the cushions again. A subdued chuckle makes his body tremble slightly.

“You haven't tried coffee before?” I ask, raising a brow.

“I've tried hot coffee—gross, by the way. And one of those frappé things, which was _way_ better” he replies, nodding as he gives the plastic cup a few rapid, crackling squeezes before he holds it up. “But nothing like this.”

“Uh, well…” I begin, pressing my lips together briefly. “It's not that different from hot coffee, and I really don't think you'd like it. It's pretty bitter. Might be a little too… _intense_ for you.”

Felix scoffs—but still pauses, eyeing my drink carefully before he gives it another quick sniff.

“I agree with Alex,” Nate says, frowning with concern. “And you definitely don't need the caffeine.”

“Caffeine doesn't affect us, Natey. You know that.”

Nate gives him a wary look. “Yes, but I still don't want to take any chances.”

“I think it's worth the risk to see him try it,” Mason says, dark amusement coloring his words. “Go ahead, Felix. Take a big swig. It'll put a bunch of hair on your chest—if you can handle it.”

“Really?” Felix's eyebrows shoot up.

“No,” Nate says, narrowing his eyes at Mason. “That's just a terrible and very inaccurate saying.”

“The more you drink, the better it works,” Mason continues on, ignoring the look. He claps his hand on my shoulder. “Just ask Alex.”

Felix cocks his head to the side and grins at me. “Does that mean you have a hairy chest, Alex?”

“Incredibly hairy, yes. Like a shag carpet down there,” I say, grinning as I glance at my breasts.

“Whoa! Alright then, I'm in!”

“Felix, _wait_ —”

Nate's arm flings forward, but his protest comes too late as Felix jolts up into a stand, tips his head back, and downs such a large and confident gulp of my drink that he pretty much finishes it off entirely.

…He doesn't swallow much of it, though. Mostly just holds it inside of his now comically large cheeks.

Beneath his slowly widening eyes.

The clock ticks away as we watch him in silence.

Until a choked noise suddenly spasms in his throat.

Mason chuckles deeply—and I can't help but join him a little.

Then, in grimacing horror, Felix spits all of it back into the cup and Mason breaks into a loud laugh.

A look of wounded betrayal flashes across Felix's face, one he quickly directs toward my drink. For a moment, he appears so upset to have it in his hand that it actually seems like he's about to fling it away entirely, but then he recovers enough to pivot.

And moves to slam it down toward the table instead.

In a flash, Nate whips forward, arms gliding outstretched to both break the cup's impact and slide a coaster beneath it in one smooth motion.

And despite how often I've witnessed him make similarly graceful saves to prevent disaster, I still remain impressed as hell—

“ _Felix_!” Nate sputters loudly, shooting him a wide-eyed look.

—although, whether the reprimand this time is directed more at the backwash, the potential water damage, or the near miss of my drink exploding across the room, I can't say.

Felix ignores it regardless, retching out coughs as he clutches his throat.

“ _Disgusting_ ,” he manages to choke out, his voice hoarse. He begins pacing around in a distressed little circle, fanning his tongue. “That was _awful_!”

I just shake my head, unable to hide my grin. “Told ya so.”

“Feel that hair coming in yet?” Mason asks, laughter still clinging to his words.

“No,” he moans, “but I feel the barf coming up.”

Nate sighs. “Go drink some water, Felix.”

“Right.” Felix nods firmly, his brow furrowed.

Then he crouches next to my bag, rips it open, and yanks out my water bottle. In a blur of movement, he spins the cap off and starts chugging, swishing the water around in his mouth noisily before swallowing.

“That's not the water I meant…” Nate begins, then shakes his head and sighs again. “Nevermind.”

As Felix continues drinking and the moment dies down a little, I glance back at my paperwork, my amusement fading. I know I should really keep going at it right now. Just pack it up and find a quieter place to work, or else I won't get it done at all. And I _did_ want to have it finished today…

I sigh and tap my pen against my lips again.

But Felix isn't exactly wrong in his assessment of how exciting it is.

“How do you even drink that stuff anyway?!” he cries out to me, plunking my water bottle onto the table. “It tastes like— like—” His hands flail around at the corner of my vision as he fumbles for the words. “Ugh, it tastes like a soggy ashtray full of old cigarettes,” he finishes, then shudders audibly. “No wonder you like kissing Mason so much.”

“Mason doesn't taste like cigarettes,” I mutter unthinkingly, without glancing up.

Mason shifts behind me immediately, and I can feel his smirk drilling into the back of my head just as surely as I feel the fingers he starts tracing along my arm.

“Is that so, sweetheart?” he asks, his voice dipping into a low and teasing tone. “What exactly _do_ I taste like then?”

“I'm sure that's a fascinating topic,” Nate says quickly, “but let's—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Felix cuts in loudly. “Exactly! Let's hear it! What _does_ he taste like?”

“You don't have to answer that, Alex.”

“Oh, but she _does_ ,” Mason drawls.

“Yeah, Natey. You're outvoted.”

“Don't I get a vote too?” I ask, grinning.

Felix and Mason's shared and immediate _no_ batters hard against Nate's _yes_.

“Outvoted again! Hah!” Felix's amused gaze swivels toward me, his coffee-related woes apparently forgotten. “Now spill it.”

Nate sighs deeply in resignation and offers me an apologetic look, although it's difficult to see it over how closely Felix slides in to crowd his face near mine. A sly smile unfurls across his lips as mischief twinkles in his eyes, and Mason completes the pincer with a flank from behind, leaning in so closely that his breath tickles hot against my skin.

My cheeks prickle with heat in response, but I remain where I am, pressing my lips together tightly as I try to squash down the nervous chuckle that threatens to escape me.

“I must taste like something good,” Mason whispers in a husky tone, his lips brushing against my ear as his fingers glide down to squeeze my waist, “considering how often you come in for a bite.”

A shiver ripples across my body, tearing that chuckle free in a wake of goosebumps.

Mason grins against me.

“So what is it?”

I bite my lip, but I can't stop the answering grin that bursts across my face, not any more than I can ignore his fingers teasing my hip or the anticipation building in Felix's expression.

I think I hear the faint sound of a facepalm, too.

“Well, uh…” I drop my gaze to the pen I'm waggling rapidly between my fingers. “First off, that was an amazing pun. Good job.”

Felix snorts as Mason's grin widens.

“Secondly, I, um…” Another chuckle escapes me as my cheeks flare to what I'm certain is an embarrassingly bright shade of red. “I… think I really need to, uh, do more testing before I can give you an accurate answer. So, I'll have to… get on that and come back to you later,” I finish weakly, my words trailing off into a cringey little noise of distress.

Felix peels away from me, sputtering into a cackle. “Oh, wow! That's it? Not what I expected! I thought _for sure_ you were gonna say he tasted like _you_.”

Then he waggles his eyebrows at me suggestively and I break into a snorting laugh.

“Okay, okay, that's— That's actually pretty good, Fee. Wish I'd thought of that.”

We laugh together loudly. And somewhere off to the side, Nate groans in pained exasperation.

But Mason only sits up and immediately pushes off the sofa—hooking his hand under my arm to take me with him.

I stumble up to my feet with the motion, still shaking with amusement as I turn to face him. And when I do, when I finally meet those pretty grey eyes of his, he smiles down at me with playfully curled lips and that achingly familiar look of affection. That extremely inviting half-lidded gaze, where promises of pleasure smolder away intensely. That passionate stare he always captures me with right before I end up pressed against him and doesn't release until long after he's finished unraveling me beneath.

That look of resolute and fathomless adoration that I'm still falling into and have fallen into every day since that moment he first cupped my face in his hands, peered into my soul as he offered his, and told me that he loved me.

That he always would.

And despite the countless times I've glanced up since then and found him watching me with that exact same expression, my breath still catches every time.

Even now.

Even more so when he slides his hands around my hips to pull us together, and a long thrill of yearning twines around my heart.

“Well, if you need to do more testing to be sure, sweetheart,” he murmurs, his lips lifting with amusement, “then let's head to the lab right now so you can, uh, 'get on that before you come for me' as soon as possible.”

Felix explodes into another wild laugh, one that I have to join, but Nate just whirls towards all of us, his mouth already twisted into a disapproving frown.

“ _No_ ,” he says firmly, “you _can't_ do that in there. Absolutely not.”

“Why not?” Mason counters, pulling his eyes away from me to smirk at Nate. “It's research, right? That's what labs are for.” His smirk slowly sharpens. “Unless you mean we should do our research in the library instead…”

Felix rolls back onto the floor howling, clutching his stomach as he shakes, while Nate fixes Mason with such a dry, withering stare that I actually start to worry for the plants in the room.

But Mason only chuckles in response.

“So when can we expect the results?” Felix wheezes a moment later, grinning up at us as he wipes the corners of his eyes.

“Not any time soon,” Mason replies, then glances back to me. “It's going to be a long and very involved process, isn't it? Need to make sure our testing is very… thorough. And exhaustive.”

“Well, good research _does_ take time.” I cap my pen and toss it onto the table. “Sometimes years,” I continue, sliding my hands up his chest to circle my arms around his neck. I flick my gaze to his, smiling slyly. “And it also requires a lot of repeated experimentation to ensure the results are accurate.”

He catches his lower lip between his teeth and inhales slightly. “Oh, I'm looking forward to it.”

Nate expels a loud, groaning sigh and claps his hands together a few times.

“Alright. We are _done_ with this topic now.”

“What's wrong, Nate?” Mason flashes him another teasing smirk. “Aren't you always going on about how I need to 'broaden my horizons?'”

“Yes, but I—”

“And that I should learn new things?”

“Yes—”

“And try doing stuff I've never done before?”

Nate closes his eyes and inhales very deeply as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Yes, Mason, I have said all of those things, and this is not what I meant by any of them and you know it.” He sighs heavily again. “But… if you insist on conducting this so-called—” he grimaces slightly “— _research_ you have in mind, then at least do all of it in your room, _please_.”

Mason lets out mock sigh of resignation. “Well, if you insist. Hope it won't end up compromising our results.”

“Pretty sure they'd be _way_ more compromising if they weren't done in there,” Felix quips, his lips thinning into a smirk.

Mason looks back to me again, smiling, and I can already hear the comment forming on his tongue.

“Oh, give Nate a break,” I say quickly before he can speak. “He's earned it.”

“If you insist,” Mason repeats, more genuinely this time.

And with that said, he gives me another lingering look before he slings his arm across my shoulder and turns to guide us from the room. I curl my arm around his waist in response as I fall into step with him.

“Wow, Natey. You're not even gonna tell them they need to stay for the meeting?”

“I'm sure we can manage without them this time,” Nate replies dryly—then adds in a more sincere tone, “and thank you, Alex.”

I flash him a quick smile over my shoulder.

“Have fun!” Felix calls out as we exit.

Once outside the living room doorway, I catch a final fragment of conversation.

“Ahhh, that totally made up for the boring patrol…”

But then it's lost to the sound of our footsteps and the anticipation stirring quietly inside of me.

We soon reach the primary juncture of hallways in the Warehouse, and I turn to head toward Mason's room, but he tugs me in the opposite direction instead. I raise a brow, but still follow his lead.

“We're going to my room?”

“Yeah. Don't wanna make a mess in mine.”

"Wow." I roll my eyes and give him a smirk. “Love that you think it isn't one already, sunshine.”

He smirks in return.

As we follow the long, bending corridor that winds toward my room, Adam whirls out of one of the adjacent hallways ahead, striding toward us with that purposeful gait of his, matched by an equally determined expression.

“Where are you two going?” he calls out as he nears.

“To make important scientific discoveries,” Mason replies without stopping, clapping him on the shoulder as we pass.

Adam turns, raising a brow in question. “We need to debrief first.”

I glance away from him as we keep walking, unable to hold back a snort.

“Yeah, that's kinda the plan,” I mutter.

Mason curls his arm around me tighter, his chuckle echoing down the hallway behind us.


End file.
